• Brandweek, Financial Times , Friday, October 24, 2008 10:47 AM

If you talked to 25,142 consumers from January to August this year, as the researchers for Keller Fay Group did, the brand name you'd have heard dropped most often is not exactly a whippersnapper in the marketplace such as Apple or Google or Yahoo or Wii, which seem to overpopulate the headlines.

It's good, ol' Coca-Cola, reports Elaine Wong.

"We're actively and consistently fueling buzz through innovative efforts like the nearly 11 million-household My Coke Rewards program ... top-rated Super Bowl and Internet advertising, and an Olympic program that connected the world over a Coke," explains Katie Bayne, CMO at Coca-Cola, North America. Meanwhile, Coca Cola Enterprises, which bottles and distributes about 80% of Coke's products in the U.S. and also controls the U.K. and other European markets, forecast a 10% decline in sales volumes in the fourth quarter. The announcement "underline[s] the weakness of U.S. consumer demand," says Financial Times .

Pepsi finished fourth behind AT&T and Verizon in the survey. Wal-Mart was fifth. The findings come from Keller Fay Group's TalkTrack analysis, which examines word-of-mouth conversations held both on and offline.

While technology, telecommunications and automotive brands dominate the top 20 finishers, packaged goods and retail companies account for 32% of all word-of-mouth conversations. One reason is because these brands fall under the realm of "social categories" and have greater frequency of purchase, says Ed Keller, CEO at Keller Fay .

Read the whole story at Brandweek, Financial Times »